In recent years, the art of fiber optics has expanded into many areas, such as communications, diagnostics, etc. Fiber optics generally involve drawn thin fibers of glass and other materials; therefore, a substantial art has developed around the production of thin glass fibers of composite nature and varying geometric structure and processes for increasing the light transmission efficiency and life of drawn glass fibers. Indeed, processes are being developed to increase ductility, tensile strength and longevity and decrease losses due to ambient conditions. The present invention relates to a process, apparatus and product resulting in improving operating characteristics of glass or vitreous fibers and other materials used in fiber optics.
It is known that humidity, moisture and corrosive gases present in atmospheres to which optical fibers are exposed can attack microscopic flaws, such as cracks or imperfections naturally occurring on the outer cylindrical surface of the fiber during continuous drawing of the fibers.
Static fatigue tests indicate that the initial strength of the freshly drawn optical fibers decline upon exposure to atmospheric conditions. For this reason, effort has been devoted to processes for applying atmosphere excluding coatings onto vitreous fibers. Such processes are expensive. More importantly, these processes result in coatings which are non-uniform, are not tightly bonded to the fiber and are subject to coating induced contamination.